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Speedy tomato sauce
June 23
Everyone has their own special recipe for tomato sauce, including me. I've got a couple of variations based on the amount of time I have when I get home (which during the week is limited). This one takes as long as it takes your pasta to boil. Serves about 2 people and doubling the recipe works fine if you need to serve more.
1 tin crushed tomatoes (I use tinned for speed. If you've got a bit of extra time, use ripe cherry tomatoes.)
1 splash of olive oil (use extra virgin if you've got it)
1 splash of red wine
1 pinch of pepper
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of white sugar
1/4 cup of ripped basil leaves (if you don't have fresh basil, dried is fine)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
200g dried pasta (or fresh if you have)
Grated parmesan - enough to sprinkly generously
1. Put your water on to boil for your pasta.
2. Add a splash of olive oil andyour chopped garlic to a deep frying pan, and heat. Get it to the point where the oil is pretty hot...but don't let the garlic take on any colour. (I find a good way to test, is to flick a bit of water into the oil...it'll sputter if its hot enough.)
3. Once the oil and garlic have had a minute or so to heat up, add in your tomatoes.
4. Your water should be boiling by now, add your pasta.
5. To the oil, garlic and tomatoes add the wine, pepper, salt and sugar.
6. After about 2 min, reduce the heat and let it simmer until you're ready to strain the pasta.
7. Just before you're about to strain the pasta, rip up your basil and add it to the sauce.
8. Strain the pasta and then add the pasta and sauce back to the pot mixing it together, then serve piping hot.
9. Sprinkle some parmesan or pecorino cheese on top.
If you want, add in some italian sausage (you'll have to pre-fry the sausage as the recipe is so quick)...it's a nice addition. Put them in as you're adding the tomatoes. * I cheated in the recipe above and added parseley as I only had dried basil...still looks good though.